The vast majority of multi-cylinder internal combustion engines sold today utilize a single cylinder block containing a plurality of cylinder bores. Unfortunately, if one of the cylinder bores becomes damaged to the point where it cannot be repaired by sleeving or by other means commonly used for such repairs, the entire cylinder block must be scrapped. Another drawback characterizing conventional engines resides in the engines' cooling systems. Most engines use a cooling circuit in which water is drawn into a lower portion of the engine, particularly the cylinder block, at only a single location, and then allowed to flow along the length of the cylinder block, while a portion of the water flowing along the length of the cylinder block, and eventually, all of the water, flows upwardly through the cylinder head of the engine. Then, water flows along cooling passages formed within the cylinder head and out of the engine, again at a single location. A drawback of this type of cooling system resides in the fact that the coolant must travel a fairly long path through the engine, and as a result, the coolant becomes quite heated and therefore unable to transfer as much heat as would be the case were the coolant to be introduced at a lower temperature and not forced to flow around the entire engine.
An engine according to the present invention solves the problems described above by providing a true modular construction for the power cylinders. In one embodiment, the cylinder carrier is itself modular. All of the present inventive engines utilize direct fresh water cooling, with individual cooling flows directed to each of the cylinder assemblies. In this manner, the present engine is ideally suited for charge air boosting to fairly high pressures, because the engine offers superior cooling capability as compared with prior art engines.